Privacy and cookies
Introduction
When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:
- enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
- recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
- measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast
- analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with govt services so we can make them better
You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the Direct Gov article, Internet Browser cookies - what they are and how to manage them. To find out what cookies are, visit the BBC article What are cookies?
If you'd like to learn how to remove cookies set on your device, find out more at All About Cookies.
HSE 'First-party' cookies
Main HSE site
Additional cookies on the main HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk
- Name of cookie:
- SITESERVER (random number)
- Expires:
- 10 years
- Purpose:
-
- So service is available when you want it and fast, we measure numbers and volumes of visitors
- To understand what visitors want to use and not to use, so we can improve the service you receive and archive what is not used
Books site
Additional cookies on HSE's commercial site at books.hse.gov.uk
- Name of cookie:
- JSESSIONID (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- Once you have logged on with username and password, so you don’t have to do it for every Web page
you request from our service
- Name of cookie:
- JSEnabled
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- So users who have disabled javascript in their browsers can still make payments by card
- Name of cookie:
- X-Mapping-kcepobcd (Where the characters after the last hyphen vary) (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- Allows us to offer faster responses and higher availability by running our website on a clustered system
- Name of cookie:
- com.prolog.ecom.web.security.SecureSessionToken
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- If present indicates that you have successfully logged in to our service
Hands-on
Additional cookies on HSE's statistical data tool at handson.hse.gov.uk
- Name of cookie:
- .ASPXANONYMOUS (random number)
- Expires:
- 10 Weeks
- Purpose:
-
- So service is available when you want it and fast, we measure numbers and volumes of visitors
- To understand what visitors want to use and not to use, so we can improve the service you receive and archive what is not used
- Name of cookie:
- ASP.NET_SessionId (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
-
- So service is available when you want it and fast, we measure numbers and volumes of visitors
- To understand what visitors want to use and not to use, so we can improve the service you receive and archive what is not used
Communities
Additional cookies on HSE's communities at webcommunities.hse.gov.uk
- Name of cookie:
- CFTOKEN (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- In completing a task, to enable you to complete the task without re-entering information already given, linking you to your (anonymous) session on the server
- Name of cookie:
- JSESSIONID (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- In completing a task, to enable you to complete the task without re-entering information already given, linking you to your (anonymous) session on the server
- Name of cookie:
- CFID (random number)
- Expires:
- End of session
- Purpose:
- In completing a task, to enable you to complete the task without re-entering information already given, linking you to your (anonymous) session on the server
- Name of cookie:
- SpiderLogon
- Expires:
- End of session, or if asked to 'remember my details' the +30 years
- Purpose:
- Once you have logged on with username and password, so you don’t have to do it for every Web page you request from our service
- Name of cookie:
- SpiderRememberMeLogon
- Expires:
- +30 years
- Purpose:
- Once you have logged on with username and password, to make it easier to log in again if you choose 'Remember me'
- Name of cookie:
- SpiderUserPrefs
- Expires:
- 1 month
- Purpose:
- To remember your selections or preferences that you've already made when looking at information or using a service
Third-party cookies
The main HSE website and the following subdomains all use Google analytics to allow us to measure how the site is used and to improve the service:
- www.hse.gov.uk
- news.hse.gov.uk
- blogs.hse.gov.uk
- webcommunities.hse.gov.uk
So the following cookies are served on all the above.
Google analytics cookies
| Name |
Typical content |
Expiry |
| _utma |
Random number |
2 years |
| _utmb |
Random number |
30 minutes |
| _utmc |
Random number |
End of session |
| _utmz |
Random number and referring website |
6 months |
Google analytics opt out
To stop Google collecting this information, use the following link to opt out of all Google analytics.
How to control and delete cookies
We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.
However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.
If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.
For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
